1803. THE NEW GOVERNMENT. ment fell on dull ears, and, when the yeas and taken, the yeas had it by twenty-six to five. 9 nays were Thus were settled two constitutional principles of great importance. The first established the right of the President and Senate to buy foreign soil; to this both Federalists and Republicans agreed. The second established the fact that foreign soil could, by the treaty power, be incorporated into the Union. These questions disposed of, a third-How shall the country thus acquired be governed?—at once arose. The Senate was first to attempt an answer in a bill to authorize the President to take possession of the territory. By it, till such time as Congress should provide a temporary government for Louisiana, all the military, all the civil and judicial powers were to be vested in such persons and exercised in such manner as the President should direct. To the Federalists the purpose and the meaning of this bill were as plain. as they were outrageous. Between the day when the United States should take possession and the day when Congress should provide a temporary government some time must necessarily elapse. During this time the old form of government, based on the worst form of Spanish despotism, was to be continued. Jefferson was to take the place of King Charles, and, without even consulting the Senate, fill every place, from governor, intendant, alcalde, down to keeper of the public stores, with creatures of his own; it was, in short, to legalize on the soil of the United States a government under which the people possessed no civil rights; nay, could be punished for even wishing to enjoy them. The bill was therefore declared by the Federalists to be unconstitutional. It was combining in the hands of the President legislative, executive, and judicial power; for he was not only to appoint public officers, but to determine in what manner they should act. This, said the Republicans, is very far from being the case. The President is not to exercise one of the powers; he is to choose the men who are to exercise certain powers, and nothing more. But even if the bill did combine in his hands powers legislative, executive, and judicial, it would still be a proper bill. Whatever limitations the Constitution may fix to the power of Congress over the States, it fixes none to the power of Congress over the Territories. The Constitution is made for the States and not for the Territories. It does not extend to the Territories. What else is the meaning of the words, "Congress shall have power to make all needful rules and regulations respecting the territory and other property belonging to the United States"? Is not this grant unlimited? Has it not always been so construed? Who makes laws in the Territories of Indiana and Mississippi? The people? No. The Congress? No; the Governor and the judges appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate. Could we pass such a law for the government of a State? We certainly could not. Does not this show that the Constitution is inoperative in the Territories? We are to govern Louisiana not by right of any grant of power expressed in the Constitution, but by right of acquisition, and this right we are to use as we think fit. The House thought this reasoning sound, and, after making two trivial amendments, sent the bill back to the Senate. The Senate refused to accept the amendments. A conference followed; the amendments were retained, and the signature of the President made the bill a law.* This act, the first of the session, was now followed by two others. One directed the issue of stock with which to pay France for Louisiana. The other provided for the payment of three and three quarter millions of dollars to the citizens of the United States holding the claims against France assumed by the United States in the treaty.‡ Nothing now remained but to make over the ceded country to the United States. It had not as yet been delivered to France; but for this purpose His Catholic Majesty had commissioned the Marquis of Cassa Calvo and Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo, and Napoleon had sent over Peter Clement Laus The amount authorized was $11,250,000, bearing interest at six per centum per annum, and redeemable in four annual instalments. The Convention provided that the final payment should be made fifteen years after the exchange of ratifications. But the law of November 10, 1803, provided for shortening this period. This act set aside $3,750,000, of which $3,738,268.98 were used. The total cost of Louisiana was, to June 30, 1880, $27,267,621.98. 1803. DELIVERY OF NEW ORLEANS. 11 sat. These three on the thirtieth of November, followed by a great crowd of priests and people, went to the hall of the Cabildo. There at high noon Laussat delivered the order of the King of Spain for the transfer of the province to France, and displayed his authority from the First Consul to receive it. Salcedo thereupon gave up the keys of New Orleans. Cassa Calvo from the balcony absolved the people from all allegiance to Spain, and, in the presence of the troops assembled on the Place d'Armes, the banner of Spain was lowered, the tricolor raised, and the dominion of Spain in Louisiana was ended forever. Laussat brought with him no French troops. The American Commissioners had not yet come, and it was feared that, when the Spanish soldiers left, New Orleans would be given over to plunder and rapine. The free negroes, the Mexicans, all the debased and lawless members of the community, would rise, it was thought, the moment they ceased to feel the restraint of military government, and begin to burn, rob, murder, and destroy. So likely did this seem that Americans whom business or pleasure had brought to the city-ship captains and mates, supercargoes, merchants, clerks, and seamen― formed a volunteer company, and, joined by a few young Creoles, offered their services to Laussat. He gladly accepted them, and thenceforth armed bands patrolled the streets by day and by night. While these men were keeping order at New Orleans, Jefferson was hurrying on the preparations for receiving the province from France; and well he might hurry, for the Spanish Minister, in the name of his master, had three times. protested against the sale.* France, he claimed, had not made. good the conditions in the treaty of San Ildefonso. By that treaty she was to secure the recognition of the King of Tuscany by all the powers of Europe. No such recognition had been obtained either from the court of London or the court of St. Petersburg. Louisiana, therefore, did not belong to France, and, not being hers, she could not sell it to the United States.† * September 4, 1803; September 24, 1803; October 12, 1803. Fearing that the protests at Washington might be followed by armed resistance at New Orleans, Jefferson made ready to meet force with force. He ordered part of the militia of Ohio, of Kentucky, and of Tennessee to be in readiness to march at a moment's notice, gathered some troops at Fort Adams, sent others to Natchez, and bade Governor Claiborne bring some with him from Mississippi. William Charles Cole Claiborne had just reached his twenty-eighth year. He was a native of Virginia and traced descent from that William Claiborne whose struggle with the family of Lord Baltimore fills so large a place in the early history of Maryland and Virginia. He received his education at the Richmond Academy and spent some time at William and Mary College. But his father was poor; he was forced to make his own way in the world, and, when scarcely fifteen, set off in a sloop for New York. There the first Congress under the Constitution was in session, the clerk of the House of Representatives was John Beckley, and to him as an old family friend young Claiborne applied for work. A place was made for him in Beckley's office, and for four years he filed papers, prepared the journal for the printer, read proof, and made friends. In 1790 Congress moved to Philadelphia, and there he was much in the company of two men to whose advice and friendship his political career was largely due. One was Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State; the other was John Sevier, delegate from the territory south of the river Ohio. By Sevier he was urged to read law and go West. Acting on this advice, he went back to Richmond, spent three months reading Blackstone and the Virginia laws, took out a license, and started for Tennessee. For a while he attempted to practice at Nashville; but his clients were very few, life on the frontier far from enjoyable, and he began to think seriously of going back to Richmond, when the people of Tennessee called a convention to frame a Constitution for a State. To this convention Claiborne was sent as a delegate. Under the Constitution thus formed, the State of Tennessee was admitted to the Union in 1796. John Sevier was the first governor, and by his influence the Legislature made Claiborne one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Law and Equity. 1803. DELIVERY OF NEW ORLEANS. 13 Hardly was he seated on the bench when William Blount was expelled from the Senate of the United States, when Blount's place in the Senate was given to Andrew Jackson, the representative, and Claiborne was sent to take the seat of Jackson in the House. His election was a flat violation of the Constitution, for he was not twenty-five years old. In Congress he sat till 1801. In the memorable contested election of that year he held the vote of Tennessee and cast it regularly for his old friend Jefferson. His reward was not long delayed, and in 1802 he was sent by Jefferson to govern Mississippi Territory in place of Winthrop Sargent, whose term had just expired. Living so near New Orleans, he was now chosen one of the Commissioners to receive Louisiana from France. With him on the mission was joined General James Wilkinson. The two met at Fort Adams in December and at once set out for New Orleans. The time fixed for the entrance into the city was Tuesday the twentieth. Early on that day the American. troops, with the bands playing the airs of France and the United States, moved in order of battle to the city gates. There the Spanish troops in like order received and then escorted them to the Cabildo on the Place d'Armes, where the Commissioners exhibited their credentials to Laussat. When the credentials of the American Commissioners, the treaty, and the powers of the French Commissioners to transfer Louisiana had been read to the crowd that filled the Cabildo, the delivery of the Province to the United States was proclaimed, the keys of the city were handed to Claiborne, and the subjects of France absolved by Laussat from allegiance to the First Consul. Claiborne then bade them welcome as citizens of the United States. They were assured that their liberty, their property, their religion, were safe; that their commerce should. flourish, that their agriculture should be protected, and that they should never again be transferred.* The speech made, the Commissioners passed out into one of the balconies that looked down on the Place d'Armes * In this transfer Upper Louisiana was not included. Indeed, it was not till March 9, 1804, that Major Amos Stoddard, as agent of the French Republic, received Upper Louisiana from the representatives of Spain. On March 10, 1804, Major Stoddard delivered the Upper Province to the United States. |